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What is LADA?

Having had Type 1 diabetes for nearly ten years now, I can handle most diabetic terms and acronyms thrown my way. Hemoglobin A1c? Got it. Carb ratios? Insulin sensitivity? No problem. But one term has continued to confuse me: LADA. Short for Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults, it’s also known as Slow-Onset Type 1 Diabetes, Type 1.5 Diabetes or, occasionally, Late-Onset Autoimmune Diabetes of Adulthood. Four names for the same thing? That’s never a good sign.

Until recently, the most common definition I’d heard for LADA was that it was a Type 1-like form of diabetes diagnosed in adulthood. But I didn’t understand the details. Does being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as an adult automatically mean you have LADA? Is there a difference between LADA and the classical definition of Type 1?

To answer these questions, I spoke with Marie Nierras, the program officer of the genetics programs at Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. She cut right to the chase. “There is a lot of confusion about LADA,” she told me, “but Type 1 diabetes and LADA are not the same thing.”

“Type 1 diabetes diagnosed in adults over 30 may be Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA), sometimes known as Type 1.5 Diabetes. LADA is often misdiagnosed as type 2 diabetes because of age; however people with LADA do not have insulin resistance like those with type 2. LADA is characterized by age, a lack of family history of type 2 diabetes, a gradual increase in insulin requirements, positive antibodies, and decreasing ability to make insulin as indicated by a low C-peptide.”

“Most people with LADA still produce their own insulin when first diagnosed, like those with type 2 diabetes. In the early stages of the disease, people with LADA do not require insulin injections. Instead, they control their blood glucose levels with meal planning, physical activity, and oral diabetes medications. However, several years after diagnosis, people with LADA must take insulin to control blood glucose levels. As LADA progresses, the beta cells of the pancreas may no longer make insulin because the body’s immune system has attacked and destroyed them, as in type 1 diabetes.”

Many people assume that the first line of the JDRF definition – i.e. an older age at diagnosis – is LADA’s most important characteristic. But it turns out that’s not true. According to Nierras, the key difference between Type 1 diabetes and LADA is not the age of the person when they’re diagnosed, but the gradual way the disease progresses. Whereas people with classical Type 1 diabetes tend to be completely insulin dependent within twelve months after diagnosis (usually less), people with LADA can often survive without artificial insulin for years. As Nierras explains, “It’s as though they have Type 1 diabetes, but something slows down the disease so they can stay off of insulin much longer than the classically definable Type 1.”

With that said, age does play a part: for reasons not entirely understood, the older you are when you’re diagnosed with autoimmune diabetes (i.e. Type 1), the longer it usually takes for your immune system to kill off all your insulin-producing cells. A five-year old with autoimmune diabetes typically becomes insulin-dependent more quickly than a 45-year old – a phenomenon researchers are struggling to understand. But it’s possible, says Nierras, for that same 45-year-old to present with a classic, fast-developing case of Type 1, or for a younger person to present with signs of LADA. According to Nierras, our tendency to emphasize age comes from arbitrary lines drawn by clinical trials — since most trials for Type 1 diabetes only accept people under 30 years old, new cases of Type 1 in people over 30 often are tossed into a generic LADA “junk drawer,” even though age itself is not the defining characteristic of the disease.

All of this might sound like semantics if you already know you have insulin-dependent diabetes. But for people whose diabetes is not quite so clear-cut, LADA is associated with a big, under-acknowledged problem: thanks to the ambiguity of its symptoms, it’s often misdiagnosed as Type 2 diabetes.

Imagine you’re a doctor and a patient comes in, 40 years old, not obese but also not lean, with high blood sugar but no signs of diabetic ketoacidosis (a warning sign for Type 1). What’s more, the patient responds well to meal planning and diabetes pills (both of which, according to Diabetes Monitor,[1] are sometimes effective in earlystages of LADA). If you aren’t aware of this weird hybrid – I like to think of LADA as the Prius of diabetes – wouldn’t you think she had Type 2?

Unfortunately, this example is not purely hypothetical – according to the National Institutes of Health, up to 10 percent of people who have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes may actually have LADA. This can lead to months, if not years, of incorrect treatment – which puts people at risk of going into diabetic ketoacidosis[2] and developing long-term complications (not to mention spending a long period of time feeling inexplicably rotten).

So what’s the bottom line? If you’ve been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and your ability to control your blood sugar with oral medications and lifestyle changes has decreased over time, you might want to be tested for LADA – especially if you are normal weight and don’t have any relatives with Type 2 diabetes. (Tests for LADA are the same as for Type 1 – a blood test to see if any autoantibodies are present, and a measure of C-peptide levels to determine how much insulin you are producing.) The bad news of LADA is that if you have it, you will eventually need to take artificial insulin. But there’s positive news as well: once you’ve been diagnosed correctly and start the right treatment, you can get back on the road to good health.

Postscript: Although there aren’t many clinical trials focused on LADA (here’s one exception), it does pose several fascinating questions, such as whether there’s a genetic connection between Type 1 and LADA and, if so, why one form of the disease progresses more slowly than the other. The challenge, Nierras says, is that people with confirmed cases of LADA are “hard to find and clinically confusing.” Anyone want to lead a drive for more LADA research?

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Comments (9)

Tim at 12:21 pm March 17, 2010

You say “Whereas people with classical Type 1 diabetes tend to be completely insulin dependent within twelve months after diagnosis (usually less)” and I would be even more specific:
In the classical diagnosed-as-a-kid Type 1, the kid shows up in the hospital in diabetic ketoacidosis after showing obvious signs of T1 diabetes for weeks or maybe even months (but never getting diagnosed). Insulin dependency realistically was there before diagnosis.
Why was diagnosis despite obvious signs not happening? Usually docs and parents and teachers never thought of it, because they always thought that diabetes only strikes old and overweight people.
It was only in the past decade or two that diagnosis of T1’s before DKA became common, but it’s still far from the rule. I credit a lot of the JDRF and other awareness campaigns with the progress that’s been made.
BTW, I was one of those kids. And some adults show in the ER or collapse at work with DKA and get diagnosed that way, too.

Becca Kantor at 12:53 pm March 17, 2010

One of my relatives was originally diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, but the doctor later changed the diagnosis to 1.5 diabetes. I never really understood what this implied–thank you for the clarification!

BILL7718 at 4:49 pm March 17, 2010

This is exactly what happened to me when I was 27 years old. I’ve heard about studies where doctors can stop the progression of LADA from turning into full Type 1, and for people who find themselves in this situation, I highly recommend researching it.

Colleen at 7:59 pm March 17, 2010

It took me four years to get my diagnosis changed – even w/ the first endo saying “LADA” the first time I saw him. Switched endo’s last year – started insulin and now am pumping. It was a frustrating 4 years as it seemed nothing I did, worked. I was 55 at the initial diagnosis…

Steve Anderson at 9:42 am March 18, 2010

Great article. This is me to a T (cell. Sorry…). After 1o years on insulin, I’m now developing insulin resistance too. My endo–a good guy–basically shrugs, albeit apologetically. Talk about the “junk drawer” of classifications…

Keith at 4:03 pm June 9, 2010

For me being in ICU, DKA at age 52 there was no question. Type 1 and age had nothing to do with it.

sue at 10:33 pm May 8, 2011

i am 53 and just diagnosed with LADA. i am over the top with worry. 16 years ago my only sister Carol passed from type 1 diabetes at the age of 32. she was 10 when she took her first injection. the is NO family hx. of this disease and now me with LADA. i wish there was more information on this LADA. i still cry every day/nite over this. i just cann’t wrap myself around how did this happen . i am 5’1 , 105 pounds. i have never had a sick day in 11 years at my job and now this.. please can some one explain it. just b/c your c-peptides are low.. what is the treatment? will you live a long life without complications. please contact me thru my e mail
thanks so much sue

It is quite ridiculous for the JDRF person to say that Type 1 diabetes and LADA are not the same. Actually they are the same–same genetics, same disease process, same treatment. A teenager will have a slower onset of T1D than a 2-year old, but the teenager isn’t told they don’t have Type 1 diabetes. I think the reason that, until recently, JDRF resisted the inclusion of adult-onset Type 1 diabetes/LADA within T1D is that adults with new-onset Type 1 diabetes FAR outnumber children with new-onset Type 1 diabetes. However, more recently with the publication of The Type 1 Diabetes Sourcebook (ADA/JDRF, 2013), there is a better understanding of LADA/T1D. And The Type 1 Diabetes Sourcebook says that insulin treatment should be initiated in ALL patients with Type 1 diabetes as soon as possible after diagnosis.

Mary Dexter at 10:28 am June 9, 2014

Yes, we should have more studies on LADA. The one listed here is from 2008 in Wales.
As someone who has had LADA for 10 years, I agree that it is different from Type 1. In T1 the pancreas stops producing insulin. LADAs exist in that honeymoon period some children go through in which our pancreases produce more or less (but still not enough) insulin at random times with a slow decrease in beta cells. However, I am very sensitive to insulin, rather than insulin resistant (Note: many T1s become insulin resistant over time and are sometimes referred to as 1.5’s). This makes calculating dosage incredibly challenging. A T1 can program a basal rate and figure that’s what insulin he has, but I also have to guess how much my pancreas will decide to deliver at any moment. Also, high blood sugars make it not want to work, but when blood sugars go down, it recovers. When it sits out, I’m high; when it kicks in a bit, I’m low. T1s and T2s are much more predictable.